The influence of emotions on human behavior has been studied for years, but only with the emergence and study of the construct of emotional intelligence the importance of this type of ability in personal and professional life becomes clearer. Considering that every organization strives to achieve positive goals, awareness and development of emotional competencies are one of the business challenges of today. In order to ultimately be able to successfully manage organizations, teams and relationships with individuals, it is imperative to know how to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions as well as recognize and understand other people’s emotions. A manager with highly developed emotional intelligence will successfully manage both himself and relationships with others, thus encouraging a positive and constructive work environment that will result in better business results. The aim of the research was to find out how the respondents perceive the importance of emotional intelligence at work and how they assess the development of their own emotional competencies. Therefore, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire with 32 respondents of both sexes who are in different managerial positions in 12 Croatian companies. The results showed that the respondents were familiar with the concept and importance of emotional intelligence in a business environment. They also find it desirable to conduct emotional intelligence tests in the recruitment process. Self-assessments of all five emotional competencies indicate that most respondents do not consider them their strengths but that there is a need for their development.